Living In Vain
by The Threat
Summary: AU .Continuing where I left off with 'Another Beginning' and 'Day Of The Underground', this story will foreshadow the coming of other characters.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Power Rangers" is owned by Saban entertainment. The character "Terrence" is mine.

* * *

In the past few months, Zedd and Rita had tried one attempt after another to try and find... whatever it was in Angel Grove that they were looking for. But for some reason, the people of that town knew how to fight their putties. So if the Power Rangers weren't fighting their monsters, the civilians are killing their putties.

This was something that Zedd kept pondering about, so Rita thought she could comfort him: "Zedd. At any rate, you now know where 'it' isn't. Doesn't that count for something?"

"It would, if I could keep searching without those... cockroaches interfering!" Zedd shouted.

"We got cockroaches too?" Mordant couldn't understand that remark.

"Stupid pig." Goldar remarked.

"Come on, Zeddy." Rita said, "They've only destroyed two of our comrades."

"Yes, but the other bugs are destroying more putties than we they ever did." Zedd said.

"Too bad there's no way to stop those colored freaks." Goldar spoke, "The rest of that town wouldn't know how to stop the monsters by themselves."

This is when a revelation came to Zedd: "Goldar, that is the best idea you've ever had."

"It is?" Goldar was startled.

"Of course!" Zedd said, "There is one servant who knows how to handle them! It's about time we revived him!"

At that point, Zedd shot his magical electricity to Earth again, doing whatever it is he does best.

On Earth, his magic split itself in two. Doing so, they caught two animals each. One was an elephant, the other was an octopus. The two animals came together, somewhere in Angel Grove, where they combined into one monster. This one monster looked like a red elephant, walking on it's hind legs, and with tentacles on his neck. Upon his appearance, it roared in celebration, and with his magical urn in his hand, he heard what Zedd expected of him.

"Yes..." it whispered, "I will do that. You will not be disappointed!"

It laughed again, upon which a group of putties appeared, and accompanied by them, the elephant/octopus monster took it's heading into the city.


	2. Chapter 2

At Angel Grove High, conversations such as the following could be overheard:

"... don't seem so dangerous anymore when you kick their knees..."

"... look a little like clowns, once you know how to fight them..."

"... day will come that we won't need those Power Rangers to help us anymore."

Especially that last bit is what bothered a particular group of six teens. That group, unbeknown to anyone, were said Rangers.

"I've heard people talk like this for weeks now." Tommy said, "And I still can't believe I'm hearing it."

"Somehow, somebody found out an easy way to kill those Putties, and it wasn't us." Aisha agreed, "I thought we were supposed to be the heroes to do that."

"On the other hand, people stop calling us the colored, costumed, or whatever freaks, weirdos." Billy spoke, "They now know we're called Power Rangers."

"But how?" Adam wondered, "We're supposed to keep our identities secret. How could anyone find out what we're called?"

"You think somebody knows who we are?" Rocky asked.

This silenced the group for a moment, which Kim broke when she wondered: "Oh my gosh! Did somebody see what my helmet does to my hair? It's my hair isn't it?"

Adam pondered about something else: "If someone knows who we are, then why didn't he say that in the papers?"

"You're right." Aisha replied, "Whoever spoke to the papers, he told them how to deal with those Putties and what we're called. Why didn't he say more?"

While they were discussing that, their watches started to make their alarming noise. Everyone looked around, upon which five of the six surround Tommy, so nobody would see him when he talks into the watch: "This is Tommy."

Zordon's voice spoke: "This is an emergency. A monster appeared downtown."

"Another one?" Tommy questioned, "But we've got class soon."

"Then we've got a reason to skip classes. What are you complaining about?" Rocky asked him.

Tommy considered that. He nodded, upon which he and the other five decided to run out of the hallway, so they could change somewhere, inconspicuously. But as they hurried around the corner, one of them accidentally hit somebody on their way.

"Oh, sorry, didn't see you coming." Billy apologized.

"You probably see better if you still wore your glasses." the other person replied.

"Terry?" Adam spoke.

"It's Terrence!" the other person, Terrence, replied, "Why can't you remember that?"

"And what are you talking about? My glasses?" Billy asked again.

"Oh! Right! I forgot!" Terrence growled, upon which he turned away from them.

"Let's just ignore him." Rocky suggested, upon which the six continued to find a place to change.

Through their watches, Alpha could hear them when they changed into their suits. Upon doing so, he pressed the right buttons on his computer and teleported them to where they had to be.

"Teleporting the White Ranger should be funtional now, Zordon." he reported.

Zordon didn't say anything. He couldn't keep his eyes off the so-called viewing globe, which showed what a news-helicopter was shooting.

"I do not understand." Zordon spoke, "Before, they sent a monster that could tear down a building, after that they sent one that could dig. This one can't do anything important for them. Why are they sending him?"

"Desperation?" Alpha thought out loud.

"I don't think so." Zordon said, "They must have some scheme in mind."


	3. Chapter 3

The Rangers arrived downtown. They saw the monster, who stood there, mostly just scaring people, while a horde of Putties was helping him. As much as that latter could, as some people have read the paper and knew how to deal with them.

"This is just great." the Red Ranger whined, "We're supposed to be the heroes fighting them, but now it's like they don't need us. We might as well not be Power Rangers at all."

"That guy doesn't look so tough." the White Ranger brought up, "I can take care of this one myself!"

He took his talking sword from behind his back and started towards the monster.

"Tommy, wait!" the Pink Ranger shouted after him.

"Well he is right." the Black Ranger started, "He doesn't look that tough."

"Maybe we could look around, see if... whoever talked about us to the papers is here again." the Yellow Ranger suggested.

"Great idea." the Blue Ranger agreed, "Let's go!"

As the remaining five set out to do what they decided, the White Ranger had reached the monster.

"Hahah... you think you're so strong don't you?!"

The monster turned to look at him.

"Just the white one?" the monster questioned, "I thought Lord Zedd and Empress Rita would have more of a challenge for me, Octophantom."

"Lord Zedd and Empress Rita?" the White Ranger hadn't heard those names before.

"Oh well, straight to business." the monster, Octophantom, said as he raised his urne.

"Glad you agree." the White Ranger replied, as he raised his sword and ran towards Octophantom.

All that the monster did was open the urne, from which a strange type of white whirlwind appeared.

"Tommy! Duck!" the White Ranger's sword told him.

The White Ranger didn't understand why the sword would tell him to do that, so he didn't duck, therefor allowed the white whirlwind to catch him, and take him into the urne.

"GREAT!" Octophantom cheered, "That's one! Only five to go!"

It allowed a strange kind of light to engulf him, upon which it disappeared out of sight, followed by the Putties.

The remaining five couldn't find who they were looking for, but they did notice a sudden change in atmosphere.

"You guys hearing that?" the Blue Ranger asks everyone.

"I'm not hearing anything." the Pink Ranger replied.

"The fight must be over." the Yellow Ranger deduced.

"Let's find out." the Red Ranger suggested, "Tommy, can you hear me?"

He spoke over his watch, but nobody responded.

"Tommy?" he tried again, but heard nothing.

"Rangers! Return to base now!" Zordon spoke instead.

The five were spooked by this sudden interruption, but they decided to go through with it anyway. They pressed their transforming devices on their belts and teleported themselves back to their command center.

Meanwhile, back at high school, Terrence was still in a bad mood from his last encounter with the six. He opened his locker and took whatever books he needed. There was another one he wanted to take, which was entitled "Encyclopedia of ancient mythology", but changed his mind at the last second. He slammed his locker shut after that.

"Ouch!" someone next to him, a girl by the sound of it, exclaimed.

The girl in question was using the locker next to Terrence, and had her head just inside it when he shut it.

"Can't you be more careful!?" she complained.

"What did I do?" Terrence asked, though he didn't sound like he cared.

"Well, if you didn't slam that thing, it wouldn't resonate in my locker, and wouldn't have my ears whistling now." the girl replied, still sounding angry.

"Why don't you wear earplugs if you got sensative ears?!" Terrence still had that hint of sarcasm in his voice.

The girl stood aghast at that: "You're the most egotistical person I ever met."

"And you deduced that out of knowing me for two seconds?" Terrence replied, "You're not quite the least annoying person I've ever met either."

Just when the girl was about to reply to that, a voice came from the P.A.: "Would Terrence Hunt please come to Miss Quentin's office."

Terrence sighed at the sound of that: "What does she want."

"That's you? You're that Terrence guy?" the girl laughed about this, "I can guess what she wants you for."

Terrence looked at her: "Sure. Laugh about it. Everyone else would."

"Don't worry." the girl was about to make her leave, "Maybe she can take care of your anger management, T."

She turned away from him just then. He was about to say something back to her, but for some reason he couldn't do it. On one hand, he was furious that she suggested he'd have an anger management problem. On the other, no one's ever called him just "T" before, which somehow sounded better than any other name he's ever been given. This girl in one brief moment made him feel undecided over what he should be feeling, which made him think of just one thing to say. And although he knew that the girl can't hear him, he did feel he had to say something.

"I hope we won't be meeting again." he whispered.

With that said, he went to see this Quentin he was supposed to go see. The bell rang, which usually meant he had to go to his class, but that had to wait just then.


	4. Chapter 4

"What were you doing!?" Zordon had begun scolding the remaining five Rangers upon their arrival at the command center, "Why weren't you with the White Ranger?"

"Because we wanted to see if this guy was there watching us." Aisha answered.

"I know who you were looking for, I heard you over your communicators." Zordon replied, "But couldn't that wait until the danger was over?"

"Zordon, didn't you tell us we should keep our identity secret?" Billy asked in return.

"He's right." Adam agreed, "If this guy somehow found out how to deal with Putties and how we're called..."

"That's no excuse!" Zordon interrupted, "Maybe one of you should've searched while the rest of you fight. Not the other way around."

"Cut us some slack, will you?" Rocky told him, "It's not like Tommy's dead now, is he?"

Zordon appeared to pause at that remark: "How do you know that for sure?"

"Rocky is right." Billy agreed, "It looked more like he was captured in that urn. So all we have to do is take that from him."

"Oof...!" Kim sounded relieved, "I almost thought I had to be worried."

"Zordon." Alpha suddenly decided to join in on the conversation, "Why don't you just tell them what's going on?"

"Why, you know what happened?" Aisha asked.

"The creature you saw is called Octophantom." Zordon replied, "You all already know what he can do with the urn."

"Yeah." Rocky replied, "But as Billy said..."

"Do not underestimate him." Zordon interrupted, "If you try to take it away from him, he may well capture you too. If he does that, there'll be no one left to protect the world."

This sudden revelation came as a shock to the group.

"I... I hadn't thought of that." Adam replied.

"So what do we do now?" Kim asked.

"Wait." Zordon replied, "Until Octophantom shows himself again."

Meanwhile, Terrence entered Quentin's office. Upon entering, the woman approached Terrence.

"Hi, how are you doing?" she asked, stretching out her hand so to shake his.

Terrence saw her hand sticking out, but turned to one of the chairs near her desk: "I don't think you wanted me to come here for small-talk."

As he sat down, Quentin was a little startled at that behaviour, but not unprepared, "No, but there's no harm in it. Is there?"

"Why won't you just do both of us a favor and just say what you have to say." Terrence suggested.

Quentin seemed pleased that he appeared to be willing to listen at least. She returned to her desk and started talking: "How are things?"

"You already asked me that." Terrence reminded her.

"And I wouldn't ask if I didn't have a reason to." Quentin replied.

Terrence sighed: "In that case, what specifically do you need to know?"

Quentin smiled: "Your parents called me, and they've expressed concern."

"Concern?" Terrence couldn't understand, "There's nothing wrong with my grades, so..."

"That's not what they're concerned about." Quentin interrupted, "They just see you spending a lot of time in your room, the library, or wherever else you go, but always by yourself."

"So? They don't wanna join me, do they?" Terrence sounded worried.

"No, that's not it." she answered, "They remember you having friends, but you don't hang out with them anymore."

Terrence sighed again, more deeply this time: "Oh. Right. Them."

"Them? You know who they're talking about?" Quentin asked.

"I used to be friends with this bunch of people, yes. Six of them, if you want me to be specific." Terrence replied.

"What were they like?" was her next question.

"Why? You wanna try and let them be friends again? You're wasting your time." Terrence stated.

"If I don't talk to you about this, your parents will." Quentin answered, "Would you rather talk to them about this?"

"Why would I want to talk to YOU about it instead?" Terrence countered.

"I'm just curious." Quentin replied, "By the sound of it, you don't want to be friends with people who used to be close friends of yours."

"That depends on how you define the word 'friend'." Terrence answered.

"How's that?" Quentin sounded curious.

"Let me just put it this way." Terrence began, "Imagine you were friends with people. Friends all throughout your childhood. You laughed together, you played together. Even if you don't like what they like, don't have what they have, none of it mattered, as we could still share things. And that's where things went wrong."

"How do you mean?" Quentin sounded more concerned this time.

"Let's just say that being a child had to go away and be replaced by being materialistic." Terrence explained, "You have a certain gadget, you're good. You have knowledge, you're not. You haven't got emotions, you're good. You wear glasses, you're not. It all became a case of what you do and don't have that mattered more to them than actual friendship."

"So you just stopped being their friend after they became... materialistic?" Quentin asked.

"Not immediately." Terrence continued, "They all started to change their interests, their habits,... they changed pretty much everything. I didn't want to change, so for as far as they were concerned, I can't be their friend anymore. If that's really how they feel, then I don't think we ever were friends."

"That's a bit harsh." Quentin remarked.

"Is it?" Terrence questioned, "My parents have a tendency of calling me Terry. I hate that name, and my 'friends' know it. Yet for some reason, one of them thinks it's so 'cool' to call me by the name I hate. You think I'm being harsh, try them."

"But is that really a reason to be without friends?" Quentin finally asked, "Don't you even have a date to the prom?"

"Seeing as everybody around here is just as materialistic, why would I want to be their friend?" Terrence argued, "And about the prom, I got finals coming up. Do I really want to concern myself with that stupid prom?"

"Well maybe this'll help." Quentin started to take out three file folders, which she showed Terrence, "Here are three new students, who'll be transferring here from Stone Canyon High. Seeing as nobody else would want to talk to them, given the rivalry between that and this school, maybe you'd be interested."

Terrence opened every folder, one by one. The first belonged to a Jason Scott, the second to a Zack Taylor, and the third to a Trini Quan. But rather than reading either one of the files, Terrence just looked at their pictures, their names, then closed them again.

"One Caucasian, one Afro-American and one Asian." Terrence spoke, "I assume they ran out of small, medium and tall people."

"They'd just be new and won't have any friends here." Quentin reminded him.

"Well they'd at least be each others' friend. Don't think they'd need me." Terrence gave her back the files and made to leave.

"You're not interested?" Quentin couldn't understand.

"Interested in having you OR my parents force me into making friends?" Terrence questioned, "Give me one good reason?"

"If we don't do it, you'll never make friends in your life." Quentin argued.

"And if you do, it wouldn't be real friendship either." Terrence told her, "You of all people should know that."

This was were Quentin decided to give up. She buried her head in her hands, shortly before reminding Terrence: "Don't forget your hall-pass."


	5. Chapter 5

Terrence left the office, only to run into a group of people. The group in question got startled at the sight of him, but quickly cooled down.

"Oh, thank goodness it's only you." one of them, namely Aisha remarked.

"Yeah, ONLY me." Terrence replied, as he decided to just ignore them and walk away.

As he disappeared out of their sight, Rocky spoke: "That was close."

"I was afraid he was gonna ask what we're doing out here." Kim said.

"He ever cared about what we do?" Billy questioned.

"No, I guess not." Kim remembered.

"I can't believe we're here, though." Adam said, "I mean, Tommy is captured, and we're here?"

"Tommy has been in bad situations before." Rocky said, "I'm sure he can handle things himself."

That's when their watches made their sound again.

"Zordon?" Rocky answered.

"Octophantom has appeared again. Morph now!" Zordon replied.

"We're on it." Rocky replied, "It's morphin' time!"

Meanwhile, Terrence had nearly reached his classroom, but then something occurred to him. He distinctly remembers that the group always consist out of six, and whenever they're at school, the six are inseparable. So, unless he's mistaken, one of them was missing. Not that he'd care much about what happens to them, but if one of them has left the group, it means that they had a fight. It would make his day if that were the truth. As he turned to find them again, he heard something. He wasn't sure of what he heard, but it sounded like some people were shouting something, one by one, followed by a strange light. A light, of which Terrence remembered to have seen before. Seeing it helped him forget whatever thought he last had in mind, only so he could try and think about where he had seen that light before. He couldn't remember it, but he did suddenly remember he was already late for class.

Once Terrence entered his classroom, the teacher was about to scold him.

"Mr. Hunt!" he raised his voice, "Did you not hear the be..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Terrence showed him his hall-pass, which the teacher looked at briefly, then lowered his voice again: "Please take your seat."

Terrence looked around the room. All seats were taken, safe for one. And that one seat was... next to that girl who had met earlier at his locker.

"You must be joking." Terrence whispered to himself.

"Is there a problem?" the teacher asked.

"Not for me." Terrence answered, as he reluctantly went to take the seat.

Once he sat down, the girl started talking to him: "Funny we should sit next to each other now."

"Funny that we've been taking this class the whole year, yet I don't remember having ever seen you here." Terrence retorted, without looking at her.

The girl laughed: "For someone who hates me, you have a lot to say to me, T."

"Do you mind..." Terrence bit back, but hesitated to finish his sentence, as he wanted to call her by her name, but didn't know it.

"My name?" the girl replied, "Alexis."

"You two!" the teacher suddenly intervened, "Don't make me have to separate you!"

"Don't make me wanna force you." Terrence replied.

"Excuse me?" the teacher was aghast at that reply.

"He said 'we wouldn't dream of forcing you'." the girl, Alexis, lied.

"Good." the teacher continued teaching after that.

Knowing what would happen if he said anything out loud, Terrence wrote something down, which he showed Alexis: "What did you just do?"

Alexis wrote something down to reply to him: "You're welcome."

Terrence sighed deeply. If he thought the six were pests, this one girl could be worse.


	6. Chapter 6

Meanwhile, the five remaining Rangers had transformed and been transported to where Octophantom had appeared. Four of the five attacked him, but the Blue Ranger didn't fight.

"I better look around." he spoke to himself, "That guy who spoke the newspapers, he just has to be around here."

As he looked around, the four kept fighting the monster. There wasn't much they could do that helped. They used their ray-guns, but the monster's hide was too thick, they didn't even leave a scratch on him. Once these four were down, it was time for the Octophantom to gloat.

"You call yourself 'power' rangers? When you don't seem to have much power at all." he said, "How arrogant of you."

It was then that it turned to some kind of reflecting glass: "Not one of you could ever have my handsome looks, my beautifully red skin, my adorable tentacles..."

As it went on, it drew the Blue Ranger's attention away from looking for the spy, and wondering what was the matter with the monster: "I never knew monsters could talk about their own appearance like that."

"Alright, cut to the chase." Octophantom suddenly turned back to the other four, "Which one of you wants to join that white one?"

"None of us will." the Red Ranger replied.

"Very well. I'll take all of you." Octophantom spoke.

He opened his urne, which caused that white whirlwind to appear again. The Red Ranger was just enough on his feet to walk away from this, but the remaining three weren't.

"Damn!" the monster cursed, "Missed one!"

This is when a circle appeared before the monster, through which Zedd spoke: "Octophantom. That'll do. With four Rangers short, the other two will be no problem for you. Return to my palace now!"

"Of course! I'm coming!" he responded, shortly before disappearing.

After that, the Red and the Blue Ranger rejoined.

"What do we do now?" the Blue Ranger asked.

"I don't know." the Red Ranger replied.

"Rangers." Zordon spoke to them, "We may just have found a way to deal with this Octophantom. Return to Command Center."

"On our way." the Red Ranger acknowledged.

While the Rangers were returning, at the high school class was ending, giving Terrence and Alexis some time to talk.

"Why did you do that?" he asked her.

"Do what?" she returned the question.

"Don't play fool with me." Terrence retorted.

"Why don't you just say 'I asked first'? It's childish, but honest." Alexis bit back.

Terrence sighed: "I really have no time to play games."

"Much like you have no time to even look at me?" Alexis questioned.

Terrence turned his head to face her: "What do you mean?"

"Come on." Alexis replied, "We've been in many of the same classes for the past three years, and you never saw me?"

"You have?" Terrence couldn't understand.

"It's funny." Alexis argued, "I usually don't keep to myself. I got something to say, I say it. I'm known to be the loudest around here."

"Maybe that's why I never noticed you." Terrence figured, "I ignore those who draw too much attention to themselves."

"Really?" she didn't sound like she was surprised.

"Why are we even talking?" Terrence wondered, as he was about to walk away from her.

"Hold it!" she stopped him, "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"I was afraid of that." Terrence spoke.

"You still owe me something." she said, "For making my ears whistle earlier."

"You're not letting that one go, are you?!" Terrence wondered, though there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Alexis smiled: "How about you sit with me for lunch today, and we'll call it even?"

"That's it?" Terrence couldn't understand.

"Well I don't like eating alone, and you don't seem to like me." Alexis explained, "So you having to spend time with me, that must be torture."

"You really are an unusual one." Terrence remarked.

"Thank you." Alexis took that as a compliment, just before she made her leave, "See you later, T."

Terrence had that strange feeling going through him again when she called him that. But he's not sure whether it's anger, or just the fact that he's not used to being called that. Or something else entirely.


	7. Chapter 7

At the Command Center, Rocky and Billy were the only ones left from the last time that the monster appeared.

"Now what do we do?" Rocky wondered, "Four of us couldn't take the guy down, and now there are only two of us."

"Why weren't you fighting with the others, Blue Ranger?" Zordon asked him.

"I was looking for that guy again." he answered.

"What makes him so important that he has you all taking your mind off your duty?" Zordon asked them, but they looked back with vague expressions.

"He means why do you put him before saving the world?"

"Didn't you tell us we have to keep our identities secret?" Billy asked.

"Forget it, Billy." Rocky told him, "We said that before."

"If this person knew who you are, he would've told the papers." Zordon spelled it out for him, "After giving away your team-name and a way of dealing with the Putties, don't you think he would also share your identities if he knew them?"

"I... hadn't thought of that." Billy replied.

Zordon was about to continue his scold: "You kids don't seem to th..."

"Did you at least notice something unusual about the monster?" Alpha interrupted.

"Unusual?" both Rocky and Billy questioned.

"Well, no matter how strong that monster is, there has to be something about him that we can use."

Both thought about this, but it was Billy who spoke: "I did notice he began acting strangely when he saw himself in the mirror."

"Of course!" this seemed to have triggered a memory with Zordon, "Octophantom was always a vain one."

"So if we could find a way to use his own vanity against him, we could beat him and save the others."

"Speaking of which, where are they?" Rocky asked.

At Zedd and Rita's palace, that question was being answered. Octophantom opened his urne, to show his two masters what he had captured. Both Zedd and Rita had to look inside to see the four of them trying to jump, climb or mount to the opening. Some even tried to teleport, but for some reason that too failed.

"Excellent work!" Rita congratulated the monster.

"But not excellent enough." Zedd growled, "You got only four of them."

"So?" Rita questioned, "With four in here, there are only two out there. We can handle two of them."

Zedd needed time to think about that, but that didn't last long: "Yes... yes, that should work. Octophantom! Use these four to lure the other two out. Use the Putties to help you."

"Yes, my master." Octophantom replied.

"Goldar, you help him too." Zedd turned to said monster.

"Me?" Goldar couldn't understand.

"You want to prove your worth? Or do you want me to destroy you myself?" Zedd asked him.

Goldar was scared to hear him talk like that: "... I... I will not fail you."

"Good." Zedd hissed.


	8. Chapter 8

At lunchtime, Terrence had seated himself on the school roof, which is somewhere where nobody else would otherwise sit to eat. It was a habit he had developed for some time, so he wouldn't have to be anywhere where he'd be noticed. Unfortunately, someone did notice him going up the roof and followed him there.

"Well, you disappoint me." she made herself heard.

Terrence heard her voice, but he couldn't think it possible that it belonged to that girl he met before. He turned to look, and there was Alexis.

"Are you stalking me now?" he asked her.

"Your locker is right next to mine, remember?" she reminded me, "So on my way to my locker, I saw you going up, while everyone else went down."

Terrence sighed, but Alexis wasn't finished: "You didn't think you would get rid of me that easily, did you?"

"I could always get a restraining order." Terrence said.

"Oh come on!" Alexis exclaimed, as she was getting closer to sit with him, "Do you really have to go down that road? Why do you hate me so much? You don't even know me."

"That's exactly the problem." Terrence replied, "You know me just as well as I know you, yet you can't seem to know when to stay away from me. Give me one good reason to think you're not stalking me!"

Alexis needed just one second to think about that: "Well for one, I'm not taking pictures of you. For another, I'm just doing the same thing as everyone else, except the exact opposite."

"Which is?" Terrence wondered.

"Being intimidated by you." Alexis said, flatly.

This surprised Terrence: "When have I been trying to intimidate people?"

"Well, you sure tried to intimidate me." she replied.

"I'm wasting time here." Terrence spoke, as started to pack his lunch together to leave.

"Oh, come on!" she stopped him, "Why are you always alone anyway?"

"Because either people don't want to be near me." Terrence explained, "Or they're just too much of a nuisance if they were near."

Alexis did seem to need to think for a moment: "And what about me?"

"You?" Terrence sounded surprised she hadn't figured that out, "You're seriously asking that?"

Alexis sighed: "Look, T..."

Again, Terrence had this feeling rushing through him as she called him that. But he listened to her anyway.

"It's like this." she explained, "We've been in the same classes for years now, and we never spoke to each other. We hardly ever even noticed each other. We've had our lockers next to each other for a whole year and we still didn't notice each other."

"So?" Terrence still didn't see the point, "So we haven't ever said a word. Why do we now?"

"Well, when we did start talking, you were in a bad mood." Alexis explained, "I'm not sorry for snapping at you, but I am sorry for doing that at a bad time."

"Is that it?" Terrence wondered, "You were just sorry?"

"I was just hoping we could talk that out." she added, "Just to avoid any other misunderstandings, just because we got off at the wrong foot."

Terrence did calm down at that: "Well, I suppose I should be sorry for taking out my frustration on you."

"Good! We're finally getting somewhere." Alexis sounded cheerful, as she sat next to him.

Terrence thought, now that they were sitting together anyway, he might as well unpack his lunch again and continue eating.

"So, why were you in a bad mood anyway, Terrence?" she asked him.

"No more 'T'?" Terrence questioned.

"No. I'm more of a hot chocolate type of person." she replied.

Terrence did see the intended joke, 'T' for 'tea', but didn't think that was funny. In either event, he explained to her what was bothering him.

Meanwhile, at the Command Center, the two remaining Rangers were still at a loss of what they should do. When suddenly, the Center's alarm blared.

"What? What's going on?" Rocky wondered.

"Sensors are picking something up." Alpha replied, "Ayayayayay... a whole group just teleported itself to the quarry!"

"A whole group?" Billy sounded worried, "What can we do against that?"

"Nothing if you go in blindly." Zordon said, "Alpha, teleport them at a safe distance, so they can see what's going on."

Alpha, though it took him five seconds first, did as he was asked.

Once the other two were gone, Zordon asked him: "Why did you hesitate?"

"Aren't you being a little too harsh for them?" Alpha wondered, "They are after all just kids, and inexperienced."

Zordon didn't seem to feel he had to answer that question.


	9. Chapter 9

Upon having told Alexis exactly what he had told Quentin earlier, she appeared to understand him: "So either you had to change, or you wouldn't be their friend anymore."

"They didn't give me much of a choice." Terrence replied.

"You don't have to explain yourself." Alexis told him, "I perfectly understand."

Terrence looked at her: "What's your story?"

"I'm sorry?" she couldn't understand.

"Well, with you following me, almost desperately trying to make contact..." Terrence explained.

"Desperate?" she questioned.

"For a lack of better terms." Terrence added.

Alexis was a little agitated, but she somehow found her way to calm down: "I'm sorry. Sometimes I don't know what to say or when to say it."

"That coming from someone with such impulsive behaviour." Terrence remarked.

"Not really." Alexis said, "As I just said, I do the wrong things at the wrong time. I'm loud when I shouldn't be quiet, and vice-versa. I think I tend to scare people that way."

Terrence could imagine that being the case, but didn't say anything.

"It's funny." Alexis remarked, "With those things showing up every once in a while, you'd think people wouldn't be easily scared by just a regular girl like me."

"That would depend." Terrence said.

"How so?" Alexis asked.

"Since..." Terrence paused for a second before continuing, "... somebody told the papers how to deal with those gray goons, people are now more capable of defending themselves. They're not as scary as they once were."

Alexis sighed: "I'd almost wish I could meet that person, tell him exactly how I feel about him."

"Oh really?" Terrence sounded deeply interested, "What would you say or do?"

"I'd punch him for turning me back into the scary queen." Alexis replied, "And I'd thank him for telling us what to do against them."

Terrence nearly stammered: "Er... would you punch him in the face or in his stomach?"

"That would de..." that's when something else came to her, "Why are you so interested?"

To that, Terrence couldn't come up with a right answer. From this, Alexis could make the following deduction: "You're the one who told the papers?"

While they were having their conversation, Rocky and Billy arrived at the quarry, to look over what was going on. From a distance, they could see how their friends were being chained to poles by the Putties, and how Octophantom and Goldar were watching over them carrying out their tasks.

"Isn't that the same golden monkey we saw before?" Rocky wondered.

"I think it is." Billy replied, "Like one of these monsters wasn't bad enough. Two of them?"

"Now what do we do?" Rocky wondered.

This is when their watches made their sound again.

"What is it, Zordon?" Rocky replied.

"I have figured out a way to defeat Octophantom." Zordon replied.

"But that won't do us any good if we can't beat that monkey or those gray things." Billy said.

"Remember that man you were searching before?" Zordon asked them, "Maybe you should put his advice into practice to defeat them. And Billy..."

"Yes?" Billy was all ears.

"You may need your weapon." Zordon told him, "Morph and call out 'Stega Stinger' and it will appear in your hands."

"Got it." Billy replied.

"So what do I do?" Rocky asked.

"You go and distract Octophantom." Zordon explained to him, "I'll tell you what to do in due time."

"That's it?" Rocky couldn't understand.

"You got a better idea?" Billy asked him.

Rocky shook his head, upon which he shouted: "It's morphing time!"

Both their transformation devices appeared into their hands, and one by one they shouted their beast.

"Triceratops!" Billy shouted and changed into the Blue Ranger.

"Tyrannosaurus!" Rocky shouted and changed into the Red Ranger.


	10. Chapter 10

To Alexis' question, Terrence merely nodded. And although he stayed relatively calm about it, Alexis could not.

"So you're the one that told everyone how to defend themselves against those grey men." Alexis was excited.

"Well, somebody had to do something." Terrence sounded cynical, "When I first saw these colored people, I thought they must be geniuses but now that I saw them up close..."

Alexis didn't understand: "What do you mean?"

"Well, you ever heard of Arthur C. Clarke?" Terrence asked, to which Alexis shook her head, "He wrote that in the future, people would find a way to become radiation and light particles, so they won't have any need for a physical body. When I saw these people in the form of light and turning back into human bodies, I thought they had accomplished exactly that, and went much further. Sort of like turning themselves into light and radiation, and back again."

"And how do you know they didn't?" Alexis asked him.

"The only thing they do is showing off, bragging about themselves,..." Terrence explained, "But they couldn't even figure out the easiest way to defeat those grey men. I wonder, since they call themselves "power" rangers, is their power to be infinitely stupid?"

"If they are, how did they do that thing with the light?" Alexis reasoned.

"They don't." Terrence explained, "Someone else is doing it for them."

This surprised Alexis to hear: "Who?"

"I'm not sure." Terrence replied, "I overheard them talk to someone they call Zordon. I remember having heard that name before, but I can't remember where."

Alexis soon realized something: "Zordon? You didn't talk about him to the papers."

"I didn't think they needed to hear everything." Terrence explained, "I told them exactly what I think the people needed to hear. What these people call themselves, and how we could defend ourselves against these monsters. With these six "protecting" us, we'll need it."

"And you didn't tell them about Zordon, because...?" Alexis questioned.

"Because I want to know more about that before I tell anyone." Terrence answered.

"So... why are you telling me?" Alexis asked him.

To this, Terrence had no answer. Why was he telling her, indeed? Just because she asked? If so, the papers asked him for more too, but he said there was nothing more. So they asked, and he didn't answer, Alexis asked and he answered immediately.

This silence of his made Alexis realize he may not feel comfortable in answering, so she decided to leave it: "Never mind."

This is when the conversation went silent, and the two didn't say a word for some time.

Meanwhile, the Red Ranger approached the Octophantom. He ran to him as fast as he could and jumped on him. The monster didn't know what was going on. As something jumped him, he lost balance, so he fell down. Goldar saw this happening, so he got ready to fight.

"Stega Stinger!" somebody shouted, upon which something got Goldar's leg, pulling it off the ground, causing him to fall. Once he was down, Goldar turned to look, and saw the Blue Ranger, holding something in his hand, that had a wire attached to it, which lead to Goldar's leg.

Goldar growled: "Putties! Attack him!"

"Billy, look out!" the other four shouted.

The Putties began their attack, which was hard for the Blue Ranger to handle by himself.s

"Alright... don't panic..." the Blue Ranger told himself, as he was surrounded by these grey men, "What did the paper say again...?"

As he tried to remember, one of the Putties came too close to him. The Blue Ranger could think of nothing else to do but to push that Putty away. In doing so, he accidentally hit the "Z" on its chest, causing it to burst apart. Seeing this happen, caused the other Putties to step back, but the Blue Ranger on the other hand saw his chance to turn the tide. Like a maniac, he attacked the Putties, killing them off one by one.

Goldar saw how the Blue Ranger went about killing the Putties, which got him too worried to stay.

"I'm getting outta here!" Goldar exclaimed, after which he stretched his wings and flew away.

The Red Ranger wasn't having such an easy time with the Octophantom. It didn't take the monster too long to beat him down. Once he was down, the Octophantom was ready to stomp the Red Ranger.

"Red Ranger, hold out your two hands!" Zordon told him over his communication device.

The Red Ranger didn't know what that was about, but did as he was told. Between his hands, a mirror suddenly appeared. With that, the Octophantom could look at himself. Seeing himself, the monster stopped doing what he was about to do.

"Oh, hello handsome!" he said to his own reflection.

The Red Ranger was astonished at the sight of that: "That's... one... weirdo."

"Now, use your scanner to search for his weak spot." Zordon told him.

"Oh, right." the Red Ranger acknowledged.

He used his scanner, which indicated where the weak spot is. Once he saw it, the Red Ranger threw away the mirror, took out his gun and shot at the Octophantom. This weakened it gravely.

While that was going on, the Blue Ranger had taken care of all the Putties, so he could free the other four.

"We're free." the Pink Ranger said.

"At last." the White Ranger agreed.

"Hey!" the Blue Ranger complained, "It's not my fault that Zordon kept teleporting us away when we wanted to help."

"Sure." the Black Ranger remarked, "Let's deal with that thing. Now!"

"Right!" the White Ranger shouted.

"Yeah!" the Yellow Ranger concurred.

On the moon, Rita could see how the Octophantom was losing.

"Another failiure of yours." Rita complained to Zedd, "It looks like I have to clean up your mess again."

She raised her staff, and pointed it to the monster. As lightning shot out of it, Zedd had his own words to say: "This would not have happened if Goldar stayed and fight as I told him to."


	11. Chapter 11

Whatever Rita shot out of her staff, it caused the Octophantom to grow larger. In this enlarged state, it somehow managed to heal from the wound it was given.

"Oh my..." it spoke, "Now you'll be sorry."

This scared the Rangers for a moment, but the White Ranger spoke: "We need our Zords now!"

One by one, they called their Zords. Upon entering them, five of them combined into the Megazord, to face off the Octophantom.

"This is all you got?" the monster questioned, "That won't do."

The urn he used before, somehow managed to grow larger as well. This urn he opened, and out came that whirlwind again. But this time, instead of capturing anyone or anything, it worked more like bullets shot from a machine gun, causing some heavy damage to the Zords. In an attempt to fight back, the White Tiger Zord jumped up and bit the Octophantom's hand. This way, it dropped the urn, which the Tiger then jumped on and destroyed it.

"NOOOO!!" the monster shouted.

This is when the Megazord saw it's chance. It raised it's sword to use the finishing blow, which ultimately destroyed the monster.

This destruction didn't go unnoticed on the moon, as Rita started scolding Zedd: "A great plan that was! Meanwhile, we've wasted our time looking for..."

"I'm painfully aware of that!" Zedd interrupted, "You don't have to remind me."

Goldar, meanwhile, was about to enter the room, but took a step back, seeing as to how angry his bosses were. Unfortunately for him, Mordant saw him: "Hey Goldar! How have you been?"

This is when both Rita and Zedd saw him too. Zedd got out of his throne: "Well, there you are. While you should've been down there, helping the Octophantom."

Goldar stammered: "I can explain. You..."

"Silence!" Zedd interrupted, "Let's see how you can do without your wings."

He raised his staff, but Goldar pleaded: "No! Please master! I'll do anything! But don't take my wings!"

Zedd lowered his staff: "Disobey me again, and I won't be so forgiving."

Goldar sighed in relief.

Back at Angel Grove High, Terrence and Alexis' lunchtime was over, so they returned inside the school building. As they had their closets next to each other, they could easily walk back there together.

"So, I know I should know this by now, but..." Terrence needed to ask this, "... we're okay now, right?"

Alexis smiled: "I won't tell anyone what you just told me, if that's what you mean."

"Not specifically." Terrence replied.

This is when Alexis noticed something: "Now will you look at them."

Terrence looked at where Alexis was looking, and saw the six that he loathed so much.

"I know that every high school has it's clique, but these guys..." Alexis didn't sound as though she were very happy about their existance either.

"Don't remind me." Terrence growled.

Alexis, noticing his tone, realized something: "Those are the six you were referring to before? The ones you used to be friends with?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Terrence growled.

"You know, I'm supposed to have some classes with them today, but they didn't show today." Alexis spoke, "Wonder what they've been doing today."

Terrence noticed something on four of the six. The said four had these weird bruises on their wrists, and one of the girls, Kim, who wore a more revealing outfit, had similar ones on her belly.

"I don't think I wanna know." Terrence replied.

**THE END**


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